• Independent assessments of client company strategic mid- to long-term capital spending, crude acquisition and/or marketing plans.
• Assessments of future competitive positioning of individual refineries or refining companies; including marginally or nonperforming assets.
• Development of independent opinions of value of physical assets and fair market value assessments of refineries and refining systems.
• Studies to retrofit or reconfigure existing refineries or refinery units.

Exemplary Engagements:

• Prepared independent views and analyses of domestic and international crude supply/demand, logistics and competitive developments and how these might drive crude supply or marketing strategies for several U.S. and international refining companies.
• Identified strategic initiatives to deal with impending IMO regulations on bunker fuel sulfur spec in 2020 including crude slate changes, capital projects, processing ventures and/or development of asphalt markets for a USGC refiner.
• Provided an independent assessment of the cost to safely restart a shuttered refinery in the Caribbean for sustained, reliable operations for an integrated NOC.
• Identified long-term strategic initiatives to enhance a USGC refinery’s competitiveness.
• Market Assessments and engineering design reviews for several Condensate Splitter projects in the U.S.
• Developed the process conceptual design for, prepared an independent economic evaluation of, and served as project manager for a U.S. independent refinery expansion project.
• Asset and fair market value assessments of large refining systems in the U.S. and Europe for several clients.
• Evaluated the feasibility and economics of expanding a U.S. refinery’s crude capacity by over 25% and to enable it to process 50% to 100% of light, high sulfur crude instead of 100% of light, low sulfur crude. In Phase II, we evaluated and selected processes and finalized design specifications and criteria. We then obtained and evaluated contractor bids and recommended contractor selection.
• Developed a processing scheme and evaluated the technical and economic feasibility of retrofitting a large Caribbean refinery to upgrade extra-heavy crude/bitumen to synthetic crude oil utilizing the existing delayed cokers, hydrotreaters and other support units and infrastructure.
• Evaluated a US$400+ million project to add a catalytic cracking unit, delayed coker and debottleneck or upgrade several existing units at a large USGC refinery. This project also evaluated the economic feasibility of adding a UOP CCR Unit.